I never heard of this curry or never tasted it before even accidentally until last month. Two weeks back, we had gone to native to attend one our close relative’s marriage function, where i tasted this curry. Initially, I thought its either raw banana or elephant yam, but when asked about this suspicious curry, they said its saiva meen kuzhambu. Though the caterer was not ready to share the secret, I googled about this, and found the recipe in one of my favorite Chettinad Specialty Blog run by Solai Aachi. I have been following her space for a long time and even tried many of her recipes.

The whole process may seem complicated, but it is simple. The curry is nothing but Puli Kuzhambu / Kara Kuzhambu. The only part we need to concentrate more is to prepare this vegetarian fish using cow peas / thatta payar, which is also simple. Soak the beans overnight and ground it to coarse paste along with few mentioned ingredients. You need to steam the paste and deep fry them.

I wanted to enjoy this whole process, so took my own time of 2 hrs 🙂 to prepare this curry and enjoyed each and every step of this process while cooking. I have used big garlic flakes, so reduce the quantity according to the type you use. Lets check the recipe,

Chettinad Saiva Meen Kuzhambu

To Prepare Vegetarian Fish :

Soak cow peas overnight in enough water. Next day, drain the water completely and grind it in a mixer along with garlic flakes, fennel seeds, chili powder and salt to coarse paste. Don’t add water while grinding.

Take a plantain leaf / banana leaf and cut it into rectangular shapes. Spread the masala paste on the leaf as shown in the image and fold the leaf.

Steam it in a idli cooker or steamer for 10-15 mins till the paste gets cooked. Let it cool down completely. Remove the leaves carefully and cut them into like fish pieces.

Heat oil for deep frying in a pan or kadai. Fry those pieces till it turns golden brown on all the sides. Remove them and drain the excess oil using absorbent tissue paper. Keep the fried vegetarian fish aside.

To Prepare Curry :

Soak tamarind in 2-3 cups water for 30 mins. Later, squeeze the pulp and extract water. Strain the water and keep it aside.

Add tamarind water, turmeric powder, sambar powder and coriander powder. Stir well and add salt to taste. Let it cook for 3-5 mins on low-medium flame. Add more water in needed.

Later switch to low flame and cook for 15 mins till the oil separates from curry. After 15 mins, add ground coconut paste if you are using. Let it cook for another 10 mins till curry becomes thick. Adjust the salt and spice accordingly.

Add fried vegetarian fish pieces and let it cook for another 5 mins on low flame. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and remove from the heat. Serve with rice.

I was thinking if the tile is saying fish, how it could be vegetarian…Hmm now got the secret recipe seems time consuming…Nice clicks PreetiHey, do we really need to use plantain leaf; can we shape them in to small pettice? Or is it authentic recipe and served in similar way you have shown here.

Rashida, you can shape them into patties, but since this curry known as vegetarian fish, we are using leaf to give the shape of fish fillets.. In the original recipe, she has used some authentic leaf but since we don't get it here, I have used plantain leaf.